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Do Steroid Injections Cause Fat Necrosis?

Posted on Tue, 20 Sep 2016

Question: I'm seventy-three years old. Twenty-five years ago I had an operation on my right knee. It helped relieve the pain in my knee, but I was not able to return to hard athletic activities, like playing basketball. Until about five years ago, I did play tennis. I've been getting steroid shots once every four months for two years for the pain in that knee. The injections themselves have been very painful, especially the last one. Since then my knee pain has become more intense. Can the physical activity of the injections themselves damage the knee?

Answered by Dr. Aashish Raghu (29 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Fat necrosis can cause pain

Detailed Answer:
Hi there.

Thanks for the query.

Physically the steroid injection can cause death of the fat tissue in the injection site region, called Fat necrosis.

This can cause pain, as well as infection can cause pain.

You can try applying ice, performing physiotherapy to help alleviate the pain. Please do avoid more than 2 or 3 steroid injections as this can increase the chances of fat necrosis.

The knee joint function can be affected due to this pain but the joint structure as such won't get worse.

I hope I have answered your query.

I will be available to answer your follow up queries.

Regards,

Dr. Aashish Raghu

Note: For further queries, consult a joint and bone specialist, an Orthopaedic surgeon. Book a Call now.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Arnab Banerjee